ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Achieving Enterprise Excellence through Shared Learning
Lea Tonkin, editor in chief
Benchmarking is reflected in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria more extensively than any other management concept. Many Fortune 500 companies and other large organizations embrace benchmarking as an important, systematic methodology for achieving the organization’s strategic objectives through shared learning with internal and external sources.
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME)/APQC Community of Practice (CoP) Benchmarking Community of Practice founded by Boeing, Raytheon, and Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) benchmarking champions was established to address their organizations’ benchmarking needs. The CoP engages more than 934 practitioners. Over 425 companies participate in this open network. It provides real-time best practices sharing, helping organizations to become more competitive through learnings from trusted partners.
The initial network focused on manufacturing. The founders soon discovered that “operational excellence” was not limited to industry. By reaching out to the public and private sectors, AME /APQC CoP participants network with practitioners in government, health care, public education, and other fields. “Benchmarking, along with Lean Six Sigma best practices can help provide solutions to close or eliminate performance gaps,” said Glenn Marshall, one of the CoP cofounders. “Our CoP recognized that all these sectors play a critical role in creating economic prosperity.”
The September webinar demonstrated how a systematic improvement strategy contributed to continuing performance gains, according to Dr. Michael Perich, coordinator, system-wide continuous improvement for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland. MCPS received a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2010. Perich said deployment, learning, and integration strategies help to create success for every student. He shared “how we do it” experiences and results in the recent webinar.
“You learn from what you do and make refinements as necessary,” said Perich. He cited the MCPS call to action (the pursuit of excellence) as an inspiration from office, department, division, and individual improvement plans.
Dramatic performance improvements resulted from the MCPS integrated improvement approach. SAT participation and performance, 99.2 percent accuracy in enrollment projections, an in-house copier program that netted $1.5 million annual savings, responsiveness to emergency work orders, and other performance indicators improved,
“Things to do,” according to Perich:
- Begin your process improvement and management journey as soon as possible.
- Study Beyond Engineering by Michael Hammer.
- Study Baldrige criteria.
- Study your organization.
Monthly CoP webinars allow practitioners to learn at their desk, view the proceedings, or attend face-to-face meetings at the AME International Conference in Dallas. This year’s Special Interest Session (SIS) will feature AME manufacturing Excellence Award recipients, industry thought leaders, and practitioners sharing lessons learned on becoming more competitive by learning from each other.
These same learnings are available by picking up the phone or sending out a benchmarking request through schandler@ame.org (manager of the Benchmarking CoP website). Join our global practitioners from leading organizations in “achieving enterprise excellence through shared learning.”
We appreciate article development assistance from Glenn Marshall and Susan Chandler.
